What’s Your Parenting Style?

Joel Forman, MD, is a board-certified pediatrician and associate professor of pediatrics, environmental medicine, and public health at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

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Your parenting style can affect everything from how much your child weighs to how she feels about herself. It’s important to ensure your parenting style is supporting healthy growth and development because the way you interact with your child and how you discipline her will influence her for the rest of her life.

Researchers have identified four types of parenting styles: ﻿ ﻿

Authoritarian

Authoritative

Permissive

Uninvolved

Each style takes a different approach to raising children and can be identified by a number of different characteristics.

1. Authoritarian Parenting

Do any of these statements sound like you?

You believe kids should be seen and not heard.

When it comes to rules, you believe it’s «my way or the highway.»

You don’t take your child’s feelings into consideration.

If any of those ring true, you might be an authoritarian parent. Authoritarian parents believe kids should follow the rules without exception.

Authoritarian parents are famous for saying, «Because I said so,» when a child questions the reasons behind a rule. They are not interested in negotiating and their focus is on obedience.

They also don’t allow kids to get involved in problem-solving challenges or obstacles. Instead, they make the rules and enforce the consequences with little regard for a child’s opinion.

Authoritarian parents may use punishments instead of discipline. So rather than teach a child how to make better choices, they’re invested in making kids feel sorry for their mistakes.

Children who grow up with strict authoritarian parents tend to follow rules much of the time. But, their obedience comes at a price.

Children of authoritarian parents are at a higher risk of developing self-esteem problems because their opinions aren’t valued.

They may also become hostile or aggressive. Rather than think about how to do things better in the future, they often focus on the anger they feel toward their parents. Since authoritarian parents are often strict, their children may grow to become good liars in an effort to avoid punishment.

2. Authoritative Parenting

Do any of these statements sound like you?

You put a lot of effort into creating and maintaining a positive relationship with your child.

You explain the reasons behind your rules.

You enforce rules and give consequences, but take your child’s feelings into consideration.

If those statements sound familiar, you may be an authoritative parent. Authoritative parents have rules and they use consequences, but they also take their children’s opinions into account. They validate their children’s feelings, while also making it clear that the adults are ultimately in charge.

Authoritative parents invest time and energy into preventing behavior problems before they start. They also use positive discipline strategies to reinforce good behavior, like praise and reward systems.

Researchers have found kids who have authoritative parents are most likely to become responsible adults who feel comfortable expressing their opinions.

Children raised with authoritative discipline tend to be happy and successful. They’re also more likely to be good at making decisions and evaluating safety risks on their own.

3. Permissive Parenting

Do any of these statements sound like you?

You set rules but rarely enforce them.

You don’t give out consequences very often.

You think your child will learn best with little interference from you.

If those statements sound familiar, you might be a permissive parent. Permissive parents are lenient. They often only step in when there’s a serious problem.

They’re quite forgiving and they adopt an attitude of «kids will be kids.» When they do use consequences, they may not make those consequences stick. They might give privileges back if a child begs or they may allow a child to get out of time-out early if he promises to be good.

Permissive parents usually take on more of a friend role than a parent role. They often encourage their children to talk with them about their problems, but they usually don’t put much effort into discouraging poor choices or bad behavior.

Kids who grow up with permissive parents are more likely to struggle academically. They may exhibit more behavioral problems as they don’t appreciate authority and rules. They often have low self-esteem and may report a lot of sadness.

They’re also at a higher risk for health problems, like obesity, because permissive parents struggle to limit junk food intake. They are even more likely to have dental cavities because permissive parents often don’t enforce good habits, like ensuring a child brushes his teeth.

4. Uninvolved Parenting

Do any of these statements sound familiar?

You don’t ask your child about school or homework.

You rarely know where your child is or who she is with.

You don’t spend much time with your child.

If those statements sound familiar, you might be an uninvolved parent. Uninvolved parents tend to have little knowledge of what their children are doing.

There tend to be few rules. Children may not receive much guidance, nurturing, and parental attention.

Uninvolved parents expect children to raise themselves. They don’t devote much time or energy into meeting children’s basic needs.

Uninvolved parents may be neglectful but it’s not always intentional. A parent with mental health issues or substance abuse problems, for example, may not be able to care for a child’s physical or emotional needs on a consistent basis.

At other times, uninvolved parents lack knowledge about child development. And sometimes, they’re simply overwhelmed with other problems, like work, paying bills, and managing a household.

Children with uninvolved parents are likely to struggle with self-esteem issues. They tend to perform poorly in school. They also exhibit frequent behavior problems and rank low in happiness.

A Word From Verywell

Sometimes parents don’t fit into just one category, so don’t despair if there are times or areas where you tend to be permissive and other times when you’re more authoritative.

The studies are clear, however, that authoritative parenting is the best parenting style. But even if you tend to identify with other parenting styles more, there are steps you can take to become a more authoritative parent.

With dedication and commitment to being the best parent you can be, you can maintain a positive relationship with your child while still establishing your authority in a healthy manner. And over time, your child will reap the benefits of your authoritative style.

www.verywellfamily.com

How Spiders Work

Spider Sex

The male spider’s primary objective in life is to impregnate one or more female spiders before other males can. As it turns out, this is no easy task in most species.

The first obstacle is actually finding a female spider. Most spider species are completely solitary animals, meaning they live and feed on their own, and they are generally spread out over a wide area, making an available female relatively scarce. The male spider has the daunting task of tracking down a sexually mature, receptive female in the area before other males can get there.

In most species, the female makes it easier on the males by «advertising» herself with pheromones, communicative chemicals. Many female ground spiders will secrete a pheromone on their dragline, the silk thread they leave trailing behind them. When males of the same species come across the dragline, they smell the pheromone with the chemical sensors on their front legs and follow the dragline to the female.

Web-spinning females may release pheromones directly into the air or coat their webs with pheromones, to make a natural «chemical antenna.» Males may also stake out developing, sexually immature female spiders, so they can be the first to mate after the spider’s final molt.

Once the male locates a female, it has to contend with any other males in the area. In species where the female spins a pheromone-coated web, the male’s first order of business is to destroy the web to cut off the signal attracting any other males. If other males are present, the spiders in most species will fight it out for the right to copulate with the female.

After taking care of any other male contenders, the spider’s next task is to deal with the female spider itself. Male spiders are generally much smaller than females in their species, making them easy prey. The male has to signal to the female that it is a spider of the same species, not food or a potential predator, and that it intends to copulate. This is courtship.

Courtship varies considerably among different species. Many web-building spiders will use vibration as a means of courtship communication. The male may strum a unique signal on a thread connected to the female’s web to identify itself and get across its intentions. Many spiders with better eyesight, such as various wolf spiders and jumping spiders, will «dance» to court the female.

Once the female recognizes the male’s courtship behavior, she will position herself for sex, signaling to the male that she is receptive, or she will make it clear that she is not receptive (by shaking her web, for example, or just crawling away). If the male is desperate to mate, because all the females in the area will soon lay their eggs, he may proceed anyway, with full understanding that the female might kill him.

Both the male and female reproductive organs are at the rear of the abdomen, but spiders don’t mate by coupling these organs. Instead, the male deposits some sperm onto a small web and picks it up on the end of his pedipalps. When the female is in position, the male deposits the sperm in the female’s genital opening. The female stores the sperm in receptacles near the ovaries. When she is ready to lay her eggs, months down the road in some species, she uses the sperm to fertilize them. Some spiders may lay hundreds, even thousands of eggs in one shot.

In the next section, we’ll look at what happens once the eggs are fertilized.

animals.howstuffworks.com

Muffet

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Muffet

Battle

Hurt

Overworld

Character Information

First Appearance

Leitmotif

Battle Information

EXP On Kill

Gold On Win

Epilogue

White Text

Yellow Text

. I think purple is a better look on you! Ahuhuhu

Muffet, when changing the color of the protagonist’s SOUL to purple.

Appearance

Muffet is a spider monster with periwinkle or lavender skin, five eyes, six arms, and two legs. She wears red rompers with buttons in the front, a red ribbon across her chest, as well as twin pigtails in her hair. She is also shown holding two teacups with her top pair of hands and two teapots with her middle pair.

Main Story

Neutral Route

Muffet hosting her bake sale

Muffet appears to be the leader of the spiders in the Underground. She also runs her own bake sale in Hotland, with the purpose of raising funds to rescue the spiders trapped in the Ruins, as they cannot make it past Snowdin’s cold weather. After running into her web, Muffet fights the protagonist.

After the battle has gone on long enough, Muffet receives a telegram from the spiders in the Ruins. The contents of the telegram vary depending on the protagonist’s actions. After receiving the telegram, Muffet concludes that the protagonist does not hate spiders and decides to let them go, apologizing and jokingly offering to wrap them up in her web and play with her pet again for free next time they come around. If the protagonist had bought an item from the bake sale in the Ruins and then used it right in front of Muffet, she accuses the protagonist of stealing before receiving the telegram immediately afterward. If the protagonist has purchased at least one of the items from her bake sale in Hotland, she thanks the protagonist instead of battling with them.

If the protagonist decides to kill her instead, a spider crawls and places a flower in the place where Muffet died.

During the battle, Muffet speaks about how she was warned by someone about the protagonist’s arrival, and she was offered much money for the protagonist’s SOUL. She also explains that the money would help to finally reunite the spider clans. When the protagonist fights Mettaton later on, he reveals that he was the one who made the anonymous offer.

True Pacifist Route

In the epilogue, the protagonist can return to her lair to speak with her, where she informs the protagonist that the bake sale was a success and that she raised enough money to have a heated limo transport all the spiders from the Ruins. Depending on how much money the protagonist has spent at the bake sales, Muffet can afford various other things for the spiders with the remaining money.

Genocide Route

Muffet standing in her web.

Muffet does not appear in her bake sale. During the battle, Muffet first says that the protagonist is scaring away all her customers, thus not letting them leave. She goes on to talk about how Alphys tried to get her to evacuate Hotland because of the danger posed by the protagonist, but she refused. She regrets that she did not capture Alphys, for she says she would have made «a juicy donut.»

She eventually lets the protagonist go, as they have not hurt any spiders (spiders are not encountered as an enemy, except Muffet herself). However, she may crash the game after the «dinner» attack as the game tries to load an attack that does not exist. (This may be related to the use of Debug Mode, and the «skip attack» shortcut within.) Purchasing an item from the Hotland bake sale does not abort the Genocide Route. Muffet will mention that the protagonist donated, but she will still be suspicious of them and attack. If she is spared, the Genocide Route will be aborted. Once she is spared, Muffet does not appear again as NPC.

In Battle

For an in-battle description, see Muffet/In Battle.

undertale.fandom.com

An overview to qualitative and quantitative research methods in design

Why is getting research more and more important in design? Marc Steen, a research scientist, says: “More and more innovations in the industry are lead by technological developments, rather than by consumers, users need or individual preferences. This so called technology gap brings the risk of creating products and services that people can not, or do not want to use or engage with.” (Steen, 2012) Research in design is “highly contextual and a key principle of a human centered design process by involving users in one or many parts of the design process.” (Steen, 2012) The goal is to understand people’s actions, needs and behaviors, to gain a deeper understanding of the problems, and receive valuable insights for the next design decisions.

Designers have various tools available to do research. From face-to-face interviews, online surveys over to new tools like guerrilla testing. In most cases it is not possible to use all of these research tools in one project, due to budget or time limitations. The key to successful research is to understand the underlying methodologies, to choose the right tool for a project.

What is qualitative research?Qualitative research is exploratory or interrogative research and tries to get “under the surface”. “The aim is to gather insights into how people live; what they do; how they use things; or what they need in their everyday or professional lives.“ (Government Design Service Manual, 2016)

Interviews are a good example how qualitative research can look like. For designers, they help them to understand the attitudes or mind-sets of a person, by asking for the “Why” and “How”. “If forces the interviewed person to think about motivations and reasons for a certain behavior.” (Barnham, 2015) Qualitative research often happens directly on-site. “It can range from a one-hour face-to-face interview, through following a participant for several days, or even a study over several weeks or months.” (Government Design Service Manual, 2016)

The gained results are rich, detailed insights of a person’s feelings and thinking. The gathered data is unstructured, and can be notes, drawings or even pictures. Qualitative research includes a small selection of participants, based on criteria’s defined by the researcher. The expectation is that this small selection represents a bigger group. This method does not claim that the results are universal right, nor statistical correct or can be reproduced. Qualitative research methods can provide deep insights, and therefore provide the designer with a better understanding for the researched topic.

What is quantitative research?Quantitative research tries to find answers to concrete questions by generating numbers and facts. “The goal is to establish a ‘representation’ of what consumers do or what consumers think.” (Barnham, 2015)

Surveys are good example for quantitative research. They ask for the “How much” or “How many” by a set of clear and predefined questions. Participants then have to choose which answer (“Yes”, “No”, “Never”, “twice a week”) is the best representation for them. Quantitative research is conducted indirectly or off-site. It is a method that includes large groups of participants to gather relevant data. The results of quantitative research are numbers or facts. In contrast these “facts” can be easily wrong interpreted because of the lack of context. And there is no control if the participant has understood the questions correctly, or what his underlying motivation is.

Quantitative versus qualitative research methodsLet me summarize the key features of both methods: Qualitative research tries to understand the context and has a holistic approach. The researcher does not exactly know what he is looking for. The results are insights in the form of Words, quotes or pictures. The results are a interpretation of the researcher and the data is unstructured. On the other hand, quantitative research tries to classify, count or measure. The researcher knows in advance exactly what he is looking for. The results are measurements, in most cases numbers. Quantitative research has the approach to proof a certain question and is therefore structured.

Qualitative research methods generate insights that are always subjective and an interpretation of the person who is conducting the research. The results are not replicable and not statistical correct, but can provide valuable insights for a human centered design process. On the other hand quantitative research methods are a good instrument a later stage of the process to validate prototypes or measure improvements.

To say that quantitative research methods are therefore objective and qualitative methods are subjective, is an over simplification of both methods and is not correct. It is very important to understand that both methods do not work against each other.

How many people to ask?Generalization or sampling, is the process of cutting out extremes or so called “outliners” from a research and is a standard in quantitative research. The goal of qualitative methods in contrast, is to look exactly for those “outliners”, because they can “provide a rich, contextualized understanding” (Polit, 2010) and be the most valid source for inspiration in the research process by a “…intensive study of individual cases.” (Polit, 2010)

This leads us to the question of how many observations are necessary to gain a deeper understanding of people’s behavior. In general, it depends on the research method, the approach and the time that is available. Jackob Nielsen, for example, says that five persons in a qualitative study are in most cases enough for a qualitative survey about human centered design questions. (Nielsen, 2012) He argues that the first interviewed person provides often the most insights. The second person will provide similar insights and will add some new insights to the research and so on. Most important is the fact, that asking no people in the design process gives no insights to the designer, and the more persons you add, the insights are not getting linear more.

Mixed methods and hybrid data“Mixed methods research is, generally speaking, an approach that attempts to consider multiple viewpoints, perspectives, positions, and standpoints. Although mixed methods research is not new, it is a movement that has arisen in response to the currents of qualitative and quantitative research.” (Johnson, 2007)

New inputs devices such as cameras, smartphones, sensors or open accessible public data give designer’s new tools to track and understand people’s real behaviors in real-time, and are constantly connected to the internet. Designers sometimes argue that tracked datasets are soulless and not a valid input. But when we can combine personal insights gained by qualitative research and combine it with quantitative behavioral data, it will enable designers to ask smarter questions in the design process, or to cite Seemann: “Hybrid data, allows us to keep the soul in the data.” (Seemann, 2012)

Mixing both methods, and adding behavioral data from sensors, we can create a new dimension in understanding people better, by analyzing what people actually do and how they behave, instead of asking them on how they think and feel. Because what people say, think, and feel can be contradictory to what they actually do. It is not that people are being dishonest, in fact, quite the opposite, they are giving as honest answer as they can. (Cooper-Wright, 2015)

By allowing designers to toggle between qualitative and quantitative methods during rapid prototyping and research synthesis …, hybrid data points to the future of smart insight generation. (Seemann, 2012)

Cooper-Wright, M. (2015) Are You a Good Driver? How Designers Use Data to Get to the Truth Available at: https://medium.com/design-x-data/are-you-a-good-driver-how-designers-use-data-to-get-to-the-truth-3c534fcaf9d2#.75buosl2w (Accessed: 20 March 2016).

7 stunning (and disturbing) photos that will make abortion supporters very, very uncomfortable

January 5, 2016 (LiveActionNews) — Images shape dialogue, and dialogue births change. Photographs that capture the Great Depression, the Holocaust, and the Civil Rights Movement are not only a testament of an era, but also examples of how photos are an effective tool for social change. The powerful images that fill the pages of history have initiated the struggle for justice and propelled the human spirit.

Perhaps the most effective method to convey the violence of abortion, the brutality of the abortion industry, and the dignity of human life is through photography. Below are seven moving images that speak volumes of the violence of abortion and the humanity of preborn children.

Warning: contains some graphic images.

1) Baby Adelaide Caines

In September, 2014, U.K. mother Emily Caines released this gripping image of her premature daughter, Adelaide, who was delivered at 24 weeks. In an interview with The Mirror, Caines said she shared the photo of her daughter with the public as a testament to the humanity of the preborn child, and to show the hypocrisy of an abortion law in the United Kingdom that allows babies to be slaughtered at up to 24 weeks’ gestation.

“Our picture shows Adelaide was not a feotus, she was a fully formed human being,” Caines told the Mirror. “To think that a baby like her could be legally terminated on grounds of a lifestyle choice is to me is horrifying.”

The U.K. Mirror reported that this powerful image of little Adelaide is the only photo her parents have of her living outside of the womb, since Adelaide passed away shortly after birth due to complications.

2) Baby Nathan Isaiah

Miscarried at 13 weeks and 4 days, baby Nathan Isaiah’s short life inside the womb affirms the humanity of the preborn at the earliest stages of life. Nathan’s parents, Allison and Daniel, learned they lost their son after they requested to hear Nathan’s heartbeat on the Doppler during the 15th week of pregnancy. When no heartbeat registered, the family visited the emergency room to obtain an ultrasound and learned that Nathan had passed away a few weeks prior.

“His little body was so perfect, with ten tiny fingers and ten tiny toes,” his mother said. “He had a nose, a mouth, two little eyes and ears.”

While the family grieved Nathan’s loss, they also shared the value of each human life through Nathan’s story.

3) Gosnell’s “House of Horrors”

Gruesome details from Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell’s “House of Horrors” revealed that the abortionist killed children born alive as a result of failed abortions, and brutally stabbed the necks of some with scissors. As images and testimony emerged, the world learned in shock.

One such child named Baby Boy B was discovered during a raid of Gosnell’s abortion facility, frozen in a red biohazard bag among 46 other aborted children. The medical examiner told the grand jury that at roughly 28 weeks, Baby Boy B’s spinal cord had been severed, and his neck bore the familiar scissor wound inflicted by Gosnell. Images depicting Gosnell’s inhumane and barbaric killings of these children underline the violent nature of late-term abortions.

Photo credit: Grand jury report

4) Hands and feet of a 9-week-old child

Images of aborted babies are historically powerful tools in affirming the humanity of preborn children and the atrocity of abortion. This image of the arms and feet of a nine-week-old baby placed on a quarter displays perfectly formed fingers and toes.

Since most abortions occur during the first trimester, these images make it impossible to ignore the humanity of a child, even in the earliest stages of life. Fetal imagery exposes the graphic nature of abortion and the violence it inflicts on a preborn child.

5) “Hand of Hope”

Thousands of pro-lifers marched in Mexico City April 25, asking the Supreme Court not to legalize abortion nationwide.

Dubbed the “Hand of Hope,” this incredible image of baby Samuel Armas grasping a surgeon’s finger was captured by photographer Michael Clancy. Doctors operated on baby Samuel in utero after he was diagnosed with spina bifida. Clancy noted that before he captured the iconic image, he was “indifferent” to the issue of abortion. “It’s just a miracle picture, a miracle moment,” Clancy told Fox News in an interview years later. “It shows the earliest human interaction ever recorded.”

Armas’s mother, interviewed 10 years after the iconic image was taken, told Fox News: “Samuel identifies it more in terms of a pro-life message more than anything.” She said, “This photo happened and God used it to show people that this baby in mom’s tummy is alive. He’s pleased that his photo conveyed that message.”

6) Forced abortions in China

In 2012, a heartbreaking image of a baby killed in China shed light on China’s grievous one-child policy. The image of a baby at nine months’ gestation shows the dead child submerged in a bucket of water. The photograph was reportedly posted to the Chinese web services company Baidu before it sparked outrage across Chinese social media sites. English reports note that the pregnant mother was forced into labor and the child was left in the bucket of water to drown after birth. Women’s Rights Without Frontiers Founder Reggie Littlejohn told LifeSite that children are violently killed in late-term abortions across China.

Click «like» if you are PRO-LIFE!

“Forced abortion is China’s war against women,” Littlejohn said. “It is official government rape. Late term babies are injected with poison in their skulls or drowned in buckets.”

7) Baby Walter Joshua Fretz

In summer of 2013, Lexi Fretz was 19 weeks pregnant with her son. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until Fretz saw that the mild spotting she noticed a few days prior had turned unusually pink. Concerned, Fretz checked herself into an emergency room, and later that evening, she unexpectedly went into labor. Her 19-week-old son, Walter, did not live long outside of the womb, and died just minutes after birth.

“I held him, cuddled him, while his heart was beating I held him to my heart,” Fretz recalled. “I counted his toes and kissed his tiny head. I will always cherish those memories that I have of him. He was fully formed and everything was there, I could see his heart beating in his tiny chest.”

These moving images of Walter taken by Fretz’s husband have impacted thousands.